Rahane guides Rajasthan to tricky win over Pune

Rajasthan's opener, Ajinkya Rahane, put a string of poor performances behind him to score 67 from 48 balls, to help his side beat Pune by five wickets on Sunday.

Rahane, who has struggled with scores of six, two and one, in the previous matches, finally came good and put on a 98-run opening-stand with his captain, Rahul Dravid.

The normally circumspect Dravid, was the aggressor, earlier on, and smashed four boundaries in the first three overs. Rahane struck his first boundary in the fourth over where he clobbered Krishnakanth Upadhyay for a six and a four.

He played the supporting role to his captain, for most of the innings, but after Dravid's departure for 58, in the 12th over, he took charge. Rahane targeted Angelo Mathews, in the 14th over, and dispatched him for two fours and a sweetly-timed six over extra cover.

Rahane and Shane Watson took their side closer to victory but fell off successive overs. Rajasthan still needed 51 from the last five overs to win. Stuart Binny bailed his side out of trouble with an unbeaten 32 from 13 balls, that ensured Rajasthan kept their, six-game unbeaten, home record intact.

"Today the wicket was much better than the last few games," Rahane said. "They were 10-15 runs short. 180 was not easy to chase but overall our team did well. Our bowlers in the last six overs were pretty good."

"In T20s, chasing is always difficult. We needed to consider our run rate and also wickets, so me and (Brad) Hodge decided that we'll take it to 25 runs from 15 balls and take it forward from there."

Dravid attributed the win to a solid-overall performance. "It was a good game. We came back well with the ball. With the kind of power-hitters they had, it looked like they'd get 200." "It was a good partnership with Ajinkya but it was brilliant from Stuart Binny and Sanju Samson who came out in the end and did well."

A fiery three-wicket spell from Mitchell Johnson helped Mumbai overturn league leaders Chennai, by a massive 60-run margin, on Sunday.

Defending a paltry 139, Mumbai needed their opening bowlers to produce breakthroughs, and they did, despite some poor fielding early on.

Johnson's first over was a comedy-of-errors with Kieron Pollard dropping Michael Hussey thrice, off consecutive deliveries, at backward point. That didn't cost them much as Johnson, in his second over, produced the goods again. He dismissed Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina off consecutive deliveries and then trapped S Badrinath lbw off the fifth ball.

The over left Chennai tottering at 10 for three in three overs. The usually resilient Chennai outfit failed to wrestle back the advantage and lost wickets regularly, with only Hussey, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja reaching double figures.

Johnson and Pragyan Ojha were the pick of the Mumbai bowlers with three wickets each. The impressive display with the ball ensured that Chennai folded for 79, which is the lowest total in the tournament thus far.

"We didn't have as many runs as we would have liked on the board, but we went out and played some hard cricket," Johnson said. "The wicket was a lot different to what it has been. It was a little stickier. We went out there with our game plan and we weren't worried about what sort of batsmen they had. We just wanted to go out there and play hard cricket."

"To be able to win against Chennai, who have been dominant, will give us a lot of confidence. To be able to win like that tonight will hopefully give everyone a boost to continue through to the finals."